Hunt County Clerk Becky presented the county clerk’s fiscal year 2026 archive plan to the commissioners Aug. 12 and said the office is in phase six of a preservation program for deed and other historic records.

Becky said the current phase preserves deed record volumes 351–450, a set she described as “64,500 pages,” and that preserved materials have been placed in disaster binders and are housed offsite. She asked the court to approve the next phase covering volumes 451–503 (34,185 pages) at a cost of $205,000.

Funding and process

Becky told the court the preservation work is paid with a fee collected by the clerk’s office: “Anytime anyone files anything in my real property records, there is a $10 fee that is collected that goes to the preservation of the records.” She described the vendor process: deacidifying pages, using mylar sleeves and binding the result into fire- and water-resistant disaster-safe binders.

Court action

A commissioner moved and seconded approval of the plan; the court voted “all in favor” and the motion carried. The clerk said work will continue on the approved written plan and that additional older volumes (including some 19th-century books) remain to be preserved.

Why this matters

County record preservation protects deeds, probate and historic election records, and preserves legal and historical documents for the public. The court’s approval commits county-record preservation funds (collected via the clerk’s filing fees) to the next phase of restoration and binding.